The present invention is generally directed to electronic check processing. More particularly, the present invention is directed to image based processing of electronically presented items, such as bank checks.
Electronic check presentment (“ECP”) is the electronic transmission of the contents of an interbank transmittal form known as a cash letter, or an electronic cash letter (“ECL”), as captured from the magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) line on each check, to the drawee bank ahead of the physical arrival of the checks actually in the cash letter. The electronic cash letter consists of a listing of items, i.e., checks drawn on a particular bank, referred to as the “payor bank” For each item, the ECL includes an item sequence number, a routing/transit (“RT”) number, an account number and amount. Conventionally, a paper cash letter, including the physical paper items, is sent after the ECL is transmitted, and the paper items are recaptured by the payor bank and reconciled against the ECL. Often, check images are also digitized by the bank of first deposit, particularly, large banks that process a large number of checks, in connection with the reading and sorting of the checks.
Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) service speeds the delivery of check deposits and overcome geographic barriers to consolidating banking relationships, as well as eliminating both the cost and time commitments associated with transporting checks. Remote Deposit Capture automates the process of creating, encoding and settling deposits with use of a desktop check scanner, a personal computer (PC) with an Internet connection, and RDC software, such as Remote Deposit Capture, such as RDC Smart Client™ by Wachovia Corporation, Inc. Checks are imaged with the desktop check scanner. The RDC software provides transaction recognition and correction capabilities as well as balancing of the total dollar amount of the deposit to the total of the scanned checks. The RDC software then facilitates transmittal to the banking institution through a secure Internet connection. An e-mail acknowledgement is returned, confirming receipt of the deposit by the banking institution. Once image quality and account numbers have been verified, the banking institution determines the appropriate clearing channel for each check image, and posts the deposit to the specified account.
The RDC software can perform a number of automated quality control processes. One of these checks is in-line duplicate detection. Due to operator error, document misfeeds or other reasons, it is common that a check will be scanned, more than once. Duplicate detection avoids a common source of an improper deposit by removing these duplicates without the need for user intervention. Generally, duplicate detection depends upon finding more than one instance of the same code imprinted in the form magnetic ink character recognition (MICR). Checks typically include MICR code line data (e.g., a bank routing number, account number and unique check number) that can be used for duplicate detection.
While checks tend to comply with standardized formats that assists in the imaging and recognition process, some industries that could benefit from remote data capture, such as the gaming industry, have a number of different kinds of deposits that vary in what data fields are encoded thereon that complicate automated transaction recognition. For example, casinos also allow gaming debts to be settled with cash withdrawal documents and casino marker documents. Often, cash withdrawal and/or casino marker documents utilize the same MICR code line data on multiple items that cause difficulties with conventional RDC software.